The present invention relates to electronic battery testing devices. More particularly, the invention relates to electronic battery testing devices which have electrical probes which connect to terminals of a battery.
Electronic battery testing devices are known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,873,911, issued Mar. 25, 1975, to Champlin, entitled "ELECTRONIC BATTERY TESTING DEVICE," discloses an electronic battery testing device which provides an output of dynamic power.
Electronic battery testing devices require electrical connections to terminals of the battery under test. A poor or faulty (i.e., high-resistance) connection can result in an incorrect reading. Typically, the electrical probes were "wiggled" by the operator as the output of the battery testing device was monitored to determine if there was a good electrical connection between the battery terminal and the probe. A poor connection was indicated by instability in the output of the battery testing device. However, failure by the operator to recognize a high-resistance connection could result in an improper assessment of the battery. Such an improper assessment could be costly. For example, if a "bad" battery were tested "good," extra time could be spent trying to locate the source of a problem or the battery could fail at a critical time. Alternatively, if a "good" battery tested "bad," it could result in replacement of a battery operating within nominal parameters.
Thus, the prior art lacks an easy to use technique for indicating a "poor" or high-resistance connection between a probe of a battery testing device and a terminal of a battery.